Chapter 28
We turned into the playground parking lot overflowing with cop cars and ambulances. Bodies lay in the field near a picnic table. I recognized several of the security detail men sprawled out unconscious on the ground. Everyone but the people I desperately needed to find, were missing. My heart shuddered as I prayed, I’d find Petunia, Cassandra, and Chef Robin in the back of one of those vehicles being treated.
“What the hell…”
A cop blocked us and told us the park was closed and ordered us to leave. I pulled back out and parked by the curb. “I need to get to the ambulances. You have pull with the PD?”
“Yeah, let me make a call,” he said just as I slipped out of the vehicle.
Cops had the perimeter blocked off with cones. Only one cop patrolled the perimeter and I waited until he was called away before sneaking past the barricade and behind the ambulances.
I peeked in each as I passed, trying not to get caught. That was when I spotted Cassandra on a gurney. She was responsive but wearing a respirator, unlike the others lying unconscious on the playground where emergency personal were still working.
I ran to her. “Cass.”
The paramedic stepped in the way. “You can’t be here.”
“She’s family, and she was babysitting. I don’t see the girl. Please, let me talk to her. Please.” I lied about the family part, but my begging seemed to work.
“You’ve got two minutes, but I have to get her to the hospital,” the paramedic said.
“What happened? Where’s Petunia?”
“I don’t know. One minute we were all singing happy birthday to Petunia again and eating the sweets, and the next, I woke up unconscious on the ground.”
“You were eating sweets?” I asked, knowing she was on a sugar-free diet.
“I only had one cookie to celebrate with Pet.”
I glanced up at the playground. “And the others had more?”
“Yeah, they were eating huge slices of cake.”
“This isn’t good,” I whispered, realizing that they were probably all drugged. “Did Petunia eat the same cookies and cake?”
“No, Chef Robin had baked her a special one. It was healthy, as if that was possible,” Cassandra said, trying to climb off the gurney.
“I’m afraid that’s enough,” the medic said and tried to put an oxygen mask on her.
Cassandra removed it. Sheer panic laced her face. “You have to find Petunia. Chef Robin was the last person with her.”
“I will. Was she wearing her necklace?”
“I wouldn’t let her out of the house without it,” Cassandra answered as they shoved the mask back onto her face and wheeled her into the ambulance.
I stopped the medic after he closed the door. “Have them run a tox screen for poisons.”
He nodded as he ran around the truck and slipped inside.
“Ma’am, you can’t be here,” The same cop that stopped us at the perimeter approached us.
“Right,” I said, holding up my hands and walking toward my car. My gaze fell on the other bodies. Women and children were included, along with our operatives. If Petunia or any of them died, it was on me.
Max paced by the car with the phone to his ear just as camera crews parked at the curb. Max lowered the phone as I approached. “Is Petunia okay?”
I swallowed around my dry throat. “She’s not there.”
“What the hell do you mean she’s not there? Did you overlook her?” Max growled and pointed an accusing finger at the park.
